How do risk management principles fit in with the reality of clinical midwifery?

Risk assessment and management is extremely important in midwifery However, it is unclear how its principles fit with day-to-day clinical midwifery practice While midwives are the inherent leaders of...

Management of first trimester pregnancy loss: mifepristone plus misoprostol versus misoprostol alone

Miscarriage occurs in 20% of all pregnancies (Fernlund et al, 2018) and medical management using misoprostol is now a popular treatment option as opposed to surgical intervention Current research...

Neonatal resuscitation: ‘room side to motherside’

From the moment of birth, around 90% of neonates initiate spontaneous respiration within 30 seconds (Resuscitation Council UK, 2016) For approximately 10% of neonates, this process takes a little...

The SAPlings project: an alternative antenatal care pathway

Antenatal care in Oxfordshire is predominantly a shared-care model based on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) antenatal care pathway Care is based in GP surgeries or...

Breast milk donation and bereavement

Choosing to donate breast milk can be a coping mechanism for grieving mothers

How To Have A Mindful Pregnancy

This handbag-sized wonder is my new favourite go-to as both a mother and midwife I only wish I had found it years ago! ‘How To Have A Mindful Pregnancy’ by Sian Warriner and Mark Pallis is packed full...

Learning from loss for professionals and parents

‘They/them’ in the birth room

New research is required to understand the needs of transgender people in the birth room

Rainbow Trust neonatal care

Rainbow Trust Children's Charity is an organisation that supports families who have a child with a life threatening or terminal illness It employs Family Support Workers who work with individual...

Congenital heart disease: issues with screening at the newborn physical examination

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a significant cause of infant death and accounts for between 3-75% of deaths in infancy in the developed world (Singh et al, 2014) For this reason, screening for CHD...

Perinatal mental illness and the midwifery role

Fighting flu: what needs to be done

As autumn approaches my thoughts turn, not to the new school term or autumn leaves but to the subject of vaccination Perhaps not what you thought I would say but, as midwives, we have access to a...

Baby Loss Awareness Week: ending the postcode lottery on therapy

In the minutes, hours, days and weeks after a family has learned that their baby has died, the care they receive from health professionals can have long-lasting effects Excellent care cannot remove...

The forgotten women of gynaecology

The atrocities of slavery in the USA in the 1800s have been well documented, but the development of gynaecological techniques using female slaves has not had the same acknowledgement Within midwifery...

Sociological and psychological effects of stillbirth: theory, research, and midwifery

When a baby dies after 24 weeks gestation, it is defined as stillbirth (Tommy's, 2019) and, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS, 2018), 3 200 babies are stillborn in the UK every year...